Tottenham Hotspur and StubHub helping unemployed young people onto Apprenticeships

Posted on 16 March 2016
- 10:30

Young unemployed people in North London are being supported onto apprenticeship schemes through a training programme delivered by Tottenham Hotspur Foundation and supported by Club partner, StubHub.

The Tottenham Hotspur Pre-Apprenticeship Scheme, funded by the StubHub Foundation, provides 16 to 24-year-olds from North London with the skills, knowledge and experience needed to secure an apprenticeship or future work.

To mark National Apprenticeship Week (March 14-18) Kevin Wimmer and Club ambassador Ledley King made a surprise visit to White Hart Lane to meet participants on the Pre-Apprenticeship Scheme.

During the visit, Kevin and Ledley got involved in a series of customer service role play exercises with the young people designed to encourage the development of key transferable skills. This was followed by a question and answer session with the pair where they talked about the similarities between their own career paths and apprenticeship schemes.

The StubHub Foundation, a corporate-advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, has provided the Tottenham Hotspur Pre-Apprenticeship programme with a £100,000 grant to fund the programme over two years.

Over the course of the next two years, 100 individuals will be recruited to start the 12-week placement which includes a mixture of hands-on work experience at the Club’s community projects and classroom-based training led by Tottenham Hotspur Foundation’s employment and skills team.

Classroom-based activity focuses on learning to write personal statements, building a CV and picking up best-practice interview techniques.

Upon completion of the 12-week placement, participants will continue to receive one-to-one mentoring support from Tottenham Hotspur Foundation until a suitable apprenticeship, training or employment opportunity has been secured.

The Pre-Apprenticeship scheme is just one of a number of employment programmes delivered by the Club as part of its commitment to supporting local residents into work. Through these initiatives 3,800 job opportunities have been created, 131 young people have been offered apprenticeships and more than 3,000 job seekers have been welcomed to award-winning jobs fairs held at White Hart Lane.

Kevin Wimmer said: “I think it’s great that projects like this help local people to build a career. The young people I’ve met here today are very passionate about their future and I wish them the best of luck on their journey to finding an apprenticeship.”

Ledley King said: “It was brilliant to meet the young people today and talk to them about their own career ambitions. By enrolling on to initiatives like the Pre-Apprenticeship Scheme, unemployed people will get the right type of support they need to increase their confidence, gain new skills and be in a better position to apply for an apprenticeship.”

Nick Harford, Head of Partnerships at StubHub said: “At StubHub, we are delighted to be supporting this fantastic initiative by the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation to help London’s youth find an apprenticeship or job. It was great to see the programme participants so engaged with the workshop led by StubHub staff and Kevin and Ledley and we look forward to seeing the results of the scheme.”

StubHub, the Club’s official ticketing resale partner, is part of the eBay group of companies and is the world’s largest ticket marketplace with partnerships across sports teams, leagues and venues in the US, UK, Germany and Canada.